Pacific Chorus Froglet died? Can you help with why?

[MelonHead]

I am a nanny, & I took the boys to catch tadpoles a few months ago, back in April. We caught some tadpoles, and have raised them all the way into the stage of froglets. We currently have 2 froglets and 1 tadpole (who was much smaller than the others when we caught it, and so it is lagging behind. He has his feet & this morning I noticed bumps where his arms will be, so he is close).

I feed them fruitflies, D. hydei, and gnats that I catch occasionally in my apartment. My apartment does not spray for insects. This past week I ordered RepCal Calcium + D and Herptivite to dust with on their fruitflies, and last night was the first time that I dusted their fruitflies with the Calcium supplement. They seemed to enjoy it, and ate the flies as usual. However, this morning when I came to check on them, I found one dead.

One has always been a voracious eater and has blossomed in growth very quickly, and one has always been smaller. I am careful to feed them on separate ends of the tank so that they can get enough to eat, and I usually try sneak the smaller one more. It is the smaller one that died. This death upsets me, as we haven't had a death in weeks. The last death we had was one froglet accidentally drowning in the hours before I moved him out of the temporary "out of the water" tank.

These last 2 froglets have been doing just fine, so I don't understand why he died.

Their Size:
Smaller than a dime, **extremely** small.

Their Tank:
http://www.pet-dog-cat-supply-store....arge407750.jpg
** I keep a cookie sheet sitting on the top of this so that the humidity can stay high enough and they don't dry out.

Their Substrate:
Wet paper towels

Temp/Humidity:
Temp: 80F
humidity: 76%

They also have a water bowl that I slightly filled with non-chorinated water, and hiding places.

Here are photos of the dead froglet, I scooped him out of his tank:



What went wrong? Do you think the RepCal Calcium + D had anything to do with it?
Thanks.

[kueluck]

When they're that young it could be a dozen different things. I was lucky. I had about 52 Upland Chorus tads that morphed and 48 made it to the stage big enough to be released. The only thing I would be concerned about would be the ventilation.

[Jessalyn]

Yeah, unfortunately even in the froglet stage they're still pretty fragile. Food wise, I feed mine the same, however I keep mine at around 65-70 degrees and I don't have a humidity gauge, I used to keep it fairly humid, but then I noticed my froglets would climb to the top of the enclosure and stick their faces by the holes so now I make sure it's probably around 40-50%. Mine will take a bath if they get too dry, I also spray some water with a spray bottle once a day.

Usually, I can tell if something is wrong because these little guys will climb up to the top of the enclosure and look like they want to get out (they also do it when they're stressed) and they change to a darker color. I'm not sure if yours do the same.

I kept them in the Kritter keeper until they were about the size of a quarter (about a month after they transitioned) and I put a paper towel over the top so the flies wouldn't get out but when they weren't eating I took it off.

I hope this helped, and I'm very sorry for your loss


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[MelonHead]

Thanks for the input guys.

Gail- I only have the cookie sheet fully on top of the tank when they are eating flies, to prevent escape. When they are not eating I sit it on the top diagonally, so some of the air slits on the lid are uncovered, and this uncovers the slits on the sides of the lid too. This is how I leave it throughout the day, do you think I should change this? I do this to keep humidity in, but I don't want to have ventilation problems.

Jessalyn - I noticed that mine do turn a darker color when they are stressed or hungry. Thanks for the heads up, I will watch the remaining frog for any darkening.

[Bombina Bob]

your problem appears to be the temp, 80 is too high, try to keep at 75 at the highest, im sorry for your loss

[MelonHead]

your problem appears to be the temp, 80 is too high, try to keep at 75 at the highest, im sorry for your loss

How can I reduce the temperature in the tank? I have nothing heating it, that is just normal room temperature (we live in southern CA). If I air condition my apartment temperature down, would that help?

[Jessalyn]

That would probably help a lot. I live in Washington and it rarely gets hot, but the past few weeks has been 90-100 so I've had to keep my room air conditioned (for me and the frogs!) once they get a bit older, they can handle it a bit better. They're pretty sturdy frogs from what I've seen, so I hope this doesn't make you lose hope in them!


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